Love is a Best Kept Secret
by vickydd
Summary: When Nico's father has enough of him, a boarding school is the solution. An all-boys boarding school. Now that, Nico knew, would be a problem.
1. Westover Hall

"Nico di Angelo! Why can't you be a tiny bit more like your sister? Why?" A dark man silhouetted in shadows stood up in his black armchair and leaned over the desk. His face stopped a few inches away from a frightened teenage boy, who took a step back in rage.

"Stop fucking comparing me to her! She's dead!" the boy shouted angrily, sick of his father's mood swings.

"And whose fault is that?" the man shouted. He leaned over more and grabbed the boy's wrist, holding the boy in place. "Whose fault is it that Bianca is dead. It should've been you."

"It- wasn't- MY- fault!" Nico spat at his father, turning his head to the side so the man wouldn't see his tears.

"Hades, dear, calm down. You're hurting the poor boy." Nico's stepmother said from the door to the office, seeming to have been awoken by the shouting match.

"Poor boy, my ass. Listen here, you worthless piece of slime, I am done dealing with your nonsense and absolute failure. Tomorrow, you are not going to school with your friends. Persephone and I have talked about sending you to a boarding school in Maine –"

"But that's all the way across the country!" the fourteen year old said outrageously, interrupting his father.

"Shut up. I'm speaking. We have the money, we can afford it. Go to your room and pack your bags. Westover Hall for Boys is known for disciplining and turning silly boys like yourselves into men. That's where you're going." The tall man in the red robe grabbed a brochure from the desk in front of him and stuffed it in his son's face. "Go. I don't want to see your face until you're done."

Nico let out a small sound of rage and whipped his hand out of his father's grip, running for the stairs. "I hate you! Both of you!"

He entered his dark room and didn't bother to turn on the lights. Frustrated tears made their way down his face. He grabbed a comic book from the floor and threw it against the wall, stomping his foot in despair.

_It isn't fair._

He sat himself down on his bed. Quickly mad at himself for yelling and angering his parents, he stood up, almost ripping the drawer out of his closet.

His vision blurred with tears and anger, he packed. Somewhere in his mind, the same though kept repeating itself. _An all-boys school could be a problem._

* * *

><p>The next morning, Nico was woken up by light knocking on his bedroom door. He had fallen asleep with his face in his suitcase and drool dripping onto his clean underwear. He sat up and groaned, still very mad.<p>

"What?" he said in an irritated tone.

"Your car to the airport leaves in an hour, Nico. Are you all packed?" He heard his step mother's woice through the door.

"No. I left the brochure downstairs. Can you get it for me?" he said in the same hateful tone.

"Yes, dear. I'll also bring you breakfast. Your uniform is hung up in the bathroom. I've left your school supplies outside your door." Persephone said kindly.

"I didn't buy any school supplies, Persephone." Nico said, slightly confused.

"I took the pleasure of buying them for you this morning." He heard in reply.

"Thank you, I guess. What time is it?"

"Eleven thirty-three."

With that, Nico heard the woman walk back down the stairs. Nico examined what he had packed in his anger last night.

Not much apparently. He had taken a traveling trunk from the back of his closet and filled it with some essentials. Underwear, socks, a couple changes of clothes, all of Nico's mythomagic cards, and some toiletries. The boy stood up and grabbed a leather lap top bag from the ledge on his dresser.

Standing up with the bag in his grasp, he opened his bedroom door to find a two foot high pile of school materials. _I'm gonna need a bigger bag. _

In this pile of school materials, Nico found the following things. An English textbook named Elements of Language: Grade 9, a science book that weighed more than all that Nico had already packed named Life: a Science, a history book that simply looked scary – Power, Pain, and the Past: World History, a red mathematics textbook whose numbers made Nico dizzy, and about a dozen other things, including notebooks, reading books for school, pencils and markers, along with a brand new black leather bag.

Nico dropped his old brown one and spoke loudly, "Thank you, Persephone!"

"Not a problem dear. Most of the supplies I got were black, is that okay?" his dad's wife came into view climbing up the stairs, handing him the brochure.

"It's perfect!" Nico said, genuinely grateful, last night's events forgotten. His step mom smiled at him.

"Good. Now, why don't you go take a shower and look at your uniform? I'll make sure all your belongings get into the trunk. Charon will be driving you."

"Okay." Nico returned to his room for a change of underwear and walked into his closet. After getting what he needed, he continued deeper into his closet, until a black door made itself visible. He entered the bathroom, not paying attention as he stripped himself in the mirror with a self-hating glance at his milky pale clear skin, his dark thin eyebrows, and his dark brown eyes. His hair stood up everywhere and Nico could barely get his hand through it. Although Nico loved to eat, every single one of his ribs shown through his skin. The crazy bangs that rested on his forehead made the bags under his eyes darker. His skin whiter. And his thin lips redder.

_Boy, he was just too much too handle. How did anyone resist this?_

Nico's grim smirk faded as he entered the hot shower.

When he exited, he came face to face with the back of his black door. A uniform hung from it.

Four, actually. All of them were of the same color scheme however. One of them, the one hung foremost and center had a white cotton shirt with an orange logo on the top rightside: _ᵂᵸ_. It had grey pants that were comfortable looking and a brown belt. The outfit beside it was a white dress shirt that had an orange tie hung on its shoulder and a grey wool vest. The pants were the same, but there was no belt. Another white dress shirt hung beside it- an extra. There was also a nice dress jacket, grey in color. Nico assumed it meant he'd have to use the other belt. The third outfit was clearly a gym uniform. Bright orange t-shirt, an extra hung beside it, and grey gym shorts. Since there were no sweat pants, Nico assumed it was an indoor gym. Hidden beside the gym uniform, almost so that Nico didnt see it, was a black and green knee length speedo. Next to it, was one more outfit. An orange polo and brown riding pants. A black belt was looped into the outfit.

Nico frowned at the last two. He didn't know how to swim and horses hated him. He quickly changed into the first uniform, with a shout from Persephone that Charon would be here in 30 minutes. He took half a second to tousle his hair with his towel, making sure it looked half presentable. Then again, he'd be getting to the school at around eight PM after a 3 hour plane ride. He'd probably mess it up till then.

He finished looping his belt into place and exited his bathroom, all his uniforms in hand as he looked down to find four pair of shoes. Two nice black ones, a pair of black and green running shoes, and knee high riding boots. Looks like this school was really big on rich kid activities.

Was Nico a rich kid? Yes. His dad had money. A lot of it. He owned almost all the mines in California. Gold, oil, coal, you name it, and his dad had it.

When Nico walked back into his room, all dressed up, he found Persephone waiting for him. She held out a hand for the extra uniforms and folded them nicely, putting them into the trunk. "Your room's a mess, Nico. Breakfast is on the desk."

Nico shrugged, heading towards his bed to eat. The both of them continued their tasks in silence.

"There's some good news you might like to know." Persephone smiled mischievously at him.

"What?" Nico grunted, his mouth full. He was being shipped halfway across the country to some preppy rich kid's school. Seriously didn't think there was much good news.

"There's a neighboring girl's school near Westover. Apparently, all the co-ed activities are done with them. You guys share a field, the stables, and a lot of other activities. It's called Yancy Academy for Young Women. Hades told me that someone you might know goes there."

"Who?" Nico asked, immediately trying to think of anyone he might know that actually likes him.

"Your half-sister, Hazel. Her mother decided it'd be best for her." She smiled at her step-son's reaction.

His jaw widened in "Hazel! That's cool. I haven't seen her since last summer."

Persephone finished folding the last piece of clothing and stood up. The green silk dress she was wearing hugged her body. She told Nico he had twenty minutes and left.

Nico picked up the brochure from the desk where he'd put it on the floor. It listed all the activities the school had to offer, but one particular paragraph about the school itself caught Nico's attention.

_Our school was founded on the remains of an old fortress built during the 1800s. Back then, it was a building for knights in shining armor. Today, our prized staff have the honor to take your boys and return them to you shining, brave as a knight, and disciplined as can be. Here at Westover Hall for Boys we pride ourselves in our future pupil's success. _

Nico hated every word in that section. It was such a tedious paragraph. Very unlike him. Nico wasn't studious, he didn't care if what he did was right or wrong as long as he liked it and he didn't do shining. He did glooming.

"Nico! Come down to say good bye to your father!" the boy heard his step mom yell from downstairs.

He glared at the paper before throwing it to the ground, all of his anger towards his father returning. Without another thought, he grabbed his trunk and his school bag, rushing down the steps. He practically ran right by his father, ignoring him and placing his things into the car. Charon smiled at him.

He came back into the house and said a polite good bye to Persephone, cringing when she hugged him tightly. He turned around and was almost out the door before his father spoke up. "Where do you think you're going, young man?"

'Somewhere I don't have to see you every day.' Nico wanted to say so badly' but held back. "To cath a flight."

"Without saying goodbye to your father?" Hades asked, actually smiling at him. Nico, as much as he didn't want to smile at that moment, had to work to keep from it and put on a serious face.

"If you were my father, you would act like it. Say hello to Bianca's gravestone for me, I'm sure even her _gravestone_ will be better than mine. Bye, _father._"

Before Hades di Angelo could say another word, his son was out the door and speeding away, anger and misery clouding his focus.

* * *

><p>When he arrived at Westover Hall, his first thought was that this school suited him. It was dark and huge. Looming and grand. It looked like a medieval castle with towers and fog. He saw a cliff on the horizon, stormy water lapping against the rocks. On the other side was patches of green fields and a couple buildings. One stood out more prominently then the others, lit up and grand, the faint color maroon clearly visible. He guessed that was Yancy Academy.<p>

As he stepped out onto the driveway, his luggage in hand, he was greeted by the sight of boys ages 14-18 walking around everywhere, greeting each other and walking into school. Nico was glad to see they were also dressed in their uniform, the polo and grey pants. It was quite chilly outside, so he quickly made his way inside, greeted by torches on stone walls and velvet red carpets. He walked to the front desk and waited behind a small group of older boys in line.

"How was your summer, Luke?" a boy of Asian descent said in a carefree voice, man hugging the attractive blonde guy in front of him.

Nico analyzed the older boys. The blonde was definitely the most attractive. He had blue eyes, a very nice jawline, and tousled dark blonde hair. But there was something in the way he stood and the way her looked that told Nico that he was bad news, no matter how attractive he was.

"Man, it sucked. Me and Thalia broke up."

"Thalia and I, Castellan. Being top of your year apparently doesn't mean much." The third guy in the group said. He had brown hair that stuck up in odd places and a crazy trouble maker look in his hazel eyes.

"Watch it, Chris, I can still tell Clarisse you hooked up with her bestie." The blonde spoke, the threat in his voice not completely teasing.

"Hey, just having a laugh. Why'd you two breakup anyway?"

Nico kind've zoomed out of the conversation, waiting for his turn at the desk. When the boys moved out of his way, Nico _totally_ not sparing a glance at the way the blonde's nice ass moved, he turned his attention to the old lady talking to him.

"—your name?" the lady – Ms. Fait, according to her nametag – said impatiently.

"Nico di Angelo." The lady quickly looked through some papers and handed him a folder.

"Here you go, Mr. di Angelo, your schedule, a map of the school, your dorm key card, your locker number, and all the extracurricular activities our school has to offer. All rules are also included in the folder, no funny business will be tolerated here. Have a nice night, classes begin tomorrow at 9 AM; breakfast is at eight." The lady gave him a stern glance through her tiny reading glasses. Nico smiled rudely and took the folder.

"Thank you."

The lady gave him the evil eye as Nico walked away, holding the folder open in one hand. His dorm key card read _Room 108, East Tower._

Nico looked at the map. Up three flights of stairs. Perfect.

* * *

><p>When he finally reached the third floor of the school, he followed the signs directing him towards the east tower. At the very end of the hallway, a circular stone staircase led up, a plaque reading East Tower, hung above the stairway. Nico groaned before climbing up, wondering why he hadn't seen another student for a while, not even hearing the laugh of a couple boys joking around. He reached a circular platform at the top of the stairs. There was one door, the golden 108 glimmered from the torchlight.<p>

Nico placed his card into the specific latch, glad when it opened. Nico walked in, looking around curiously. The room was spacy, big and wide. A bunk bed sat against the far wall, one trunk at the edge of the bed open wide, a splatter of color coming from inside it. Another trunk sat against the wall near the pillow on the bottom bunk, closed, a uniform neatly folded on top. On the opposite side of the room was a bed which Nico presumed was his, considering there was nothing on it or around it. There was a big window on the far wall that glittered with moonlight, and two desks against the wall under it. The third desk was pushed up against the wall at the foot of Nico's bed. There was a shelf on the wall above the top bunk and a bedside table next to Nico's bed. An open closet which looked empty sat beside the door, imbedded into the wall. The door Nico guessed led into the bathroom was slightly open. He dropped his bag and folder onto the freshly made bed and put down his trunk beside his desk. He sat on the bed, and sighed, his back hunching.

"Home, sweet, home."

The husky alien voice caught Nico so by surprise the boy almost fell off the bed. He looked up at his roommate. The first thing he saw, since his eyes trailed upwards from the floor, was that the boy was wearing jeans and he was shirtless. The second thing he saw was that the boy had a couple fading scars along his nicely muscled abdomen. He blushed.

"Oh, sorry, just changing into something warmer, it's pretty chilly in here, don't you think? I'm Percy."

Nico looked up to actually look at _Percy_. The boy had a sheepish smile and shaggy black hair that fell in his eyes as he rummaged through the open trunk at the foot of the bunk bed. He grabbed and pulled on a green sweater, smiling at him when he'd gotten his head through the hole. Percy had green eyes. Really, really pretty green eyes.

"Nico." He was able to choke out through his blush before the door was pushed open.

"Percy! Already stripping for the newbies, aren't you?" This tall, blonde blue eyed boy said as he entered, spilling a bag of toiletries on the bed; his hair was wet. He reminded Nico of the boy from downstairs but this blonde was lighter, neater, and had an air of a blonde superman about him. He wore grey sweats and a light blue tee.

Percy patted down his sweater and gave the blonde boy a look. "Oh, shut up, Jason."

"What, saving all the goods for _Annabeth?_" the blonde – Jason, Nico told himself – smirked at the blush on Percy's cheeks.

"that's none of your business." He said, sitting on the desk chair and spinning around once.

"Yeah, yeah. Hi there, Nico, I'm Jason. Sorry about him," Jason leaned down to stage whisper in Nico's ear, "he's a bit weird. Nobody likes him."

"Nico, don't listen to him. The first one isn't true, as for the second, I don't exactly have the best reputation." Percy laughed, a nice throaty chuckle that made Nico think he probably wouldn't survive a night in the same dorm as this kid, much less a year.

"Why don't people like you?" Nico asked, not able to satisfy his thirst for knowledge.

Jason sat on the bed and looked at Percy before speaking. "Percy is what people consider poor and stupid, here at Westover. I can be friends with him and get away with it; I'm just that cool."

The green eyed boy went into rant mode, pacing and gesturing, making faces at all the correct parts. "My mom works her ass to send me here, and what? So I'm still treated like an outcast. I was never good at school, but this is literally my last shot, I've been expelled from every single school I've gone to, but not this one. Doesn't help that I can't stand snobs and bullies, so other than Jason, all my friends are pretty disliked. "

"Oh." Nico frowned. He didn't feel like mentioning that his family was filthy rich, but he could say something else. "I've never had many friends either. Mostly on my own, my last school thought I was a creepy dork."

"Are you a creepy dork?" Jason asked honestly. Nico blushed, when Percy looked at him expectantly, awaiting an answer.

"Do I look like a creepy dork?"

At the same time that Jason said yes, Percy said no. Nico blushed again. "There you go."

"You _are _a niner right?" Percy asked, sitting on the floor next to Jason, who was on the bed.

Nico nodded. "What sports do you do?"

Percy sent a smirk Jason's way before opening his mouth to reply. "Jason's all about being the all-American teenage boy. Soccer, football, tennis, cross country – if it's a white boy sport, he's great at it." Jason punched Percy in the arm, but the boy continued. "I myself prefer less land, more water. Swim Captain this year, but barely. If I don't keep my marks up I'm a goner. Both Jason and I are pretty into fencing – which yes – the school offers. Weird, I know. You?"

At first Nico didn't realize Percy had asked him anything because he had been too busy watching Percy's jaw as he yawned the last word. Jason sent him an expectant look. He popped back into reality. "Oh . . . um, I don't really do sports. I like to play video games and read, mostly."

"What games do you play?" Jason asked him. Nico wondered whether he should say Mythomagic, but decided against it.

"Um, mostly zombie apocalypse stuff. Is there any tech in Westover?" He hoped the answer was yes.

"Well," Percy began, "depends if you're willing to break a couple rules. Are you?"

Nico thought about for a second. Anything to make his dad mad. "Why not?"

"That's the spirit. In a week, if you still want to play some videogames, ask again."

"Why not now?" he looked at both the older boys, confused.

"Three reasons," Jason said. "One, we don't know you all that well and it's too risky to show you our big secret yet. Two, we'd get caught for sure if we went anytime this week – the school's all over the place with the year just starting. Three, we're hungry, and if I'm right, the dining hall closes in 15 minutes. Come on, me and Perce will introduce you to some of our friends."

So Nico was dragged along with his new roommates to the dining hall. On the way down the circular staircase right under their room, he asked the two why there was only one room up there. They both shrugged but Percy tried to elaborate.

"Westover's weird. It was built ages ago, right? Well, almost none of it has been reconstructed. So, space and dorms are of all shapes and sizes. The East Tower? Well, that's one of the small towers. The heads of the school and all the professors stay in the North Tower. It's huge."

Both boys paused to smile as Nico almost tripped on the last stair before Percy continued with directing hand gestures.

"The southeast side of the school is dedicated to dorms. Real convenient, 'cause it means the profs' don't hear us from the North end. The southwest side is all classrooms – mostly core subjects – and the library – which is huge and scary and horrible to get lost in. The South Tower is where all of us came in; the gates. It also doubles as the Astronomy Tower – it's almost as tall as North. The school's auditorium/theatre thing is in the West Tower. Northwest is all the more creative classes like workshop, art, languages, etc. What we're walking around right now? That's the plaza. Outdoor activities? That's the place. It sides with the dining hall, a ballroom, and the kitchens."

"Makes it near impossible to steal some damn food, they're right next to the Heads tower." Jason added. Percy sent him a look for interrupting before once again, continuing to unfold the school to Nico.

"Northeast is basically all the good stuff. The pool, the gym, huge showers and baths area, and maintenance." Percy smiled largely before taking a huge breath. "My mouth is so dry now."

"How big is this school?" Nico ignored Percy, exasperated and amazed. Percy looked proud of his little speech.

Jason looked at him before looking ahead into what Nico realized was the dining hall. "Huge."

Jason was right, Nico decided. The school was huge. Nico trailed behind Percy and Jason as they lead him into the – room for a lack of a better word. His eyes trailed down from the expansive ceiling and to the wooden tables. Tables at the side of the expansive space held all types of dinner foods. The boys Nico saw earlier sat at one table, and boys ages 13-18 were spread all over the place mingling, laughing, and exchanging items, most eating.

"Problem is," he heard from in front of him. Jason was speaking. "You forget which way is North—"

Percy cut him off and finished his sentence. "—and you're not just lost. You're doomed."

Nico swallowed even though the boys faces showed hints of joking. Their voices were pretty serious.

After they lined up to get some food, and filled their plates to the brim with all you can eat in 10 minutes, Jason looked back at him and pointed to a table a couple of boys were already seated at.

"Time you meet our friends," he said.

Percy walked along in front of Nico and Jason. Something blue was poking out of Percy's jeans – a pen. It drew attention to his butt, which Nico forced himself to look away from. He had an extremely nice ass. Forcing himself to pay attention to Jason, who was apparently saying something, Nico got his mind out of the gutter.

"—a couple of other friends. There's the girls's school, Yancy, a km down the hills. They share their stables with us. We share our lake. The girls school is just as big as ours, but a lot of it is empty. They use our ballroom, our pool, and our aud. All events are basically conjoined."

Right, the school Hazel went to. Nico forced himself to say something. "That's cool."

They reached the table and Nico sat in between the two older boys. Percy looked over to him as he ate his first piece of chicken, looking around.

"The Hall isn't always like this. Weekends, holidays, first days back and exam week. That's when everyone can sit where they want. The rest of the week, or at least school days, you sit with your dorm at breakfast, during lunch you're free to eat outside or in the Hall with whomever, and at dinner you sit with your grade. It's pretty simple."

"Helps make friends." Jason stated, his mouth half full of salad. He began to introduce members at their table. "Nico, this is Leo," he gestured to a short Latino boy with crazy curls and elfish features. The boy was kinda cute but slightly weird. In his hands he held a broken apart yo-yo. Leo waved, his hand had black ink all over it, before returning to his food. Nico suspected the boy had broken a pen earlier.

"Frank," Jason pointed to a tall and chubby panda looking Chinese boy. He had black military cut hair and warm brown eyes. Cute too, but in a more teddy bear way. Frank lifted his hand to wave but accidentally knocked a glass of Canada Dry down. He blushed and rushed to wipe it off. The table burst into laughter.

"And that's Grover." A brown haired green eyed boy with freckles and crutches smiled at him. There was an enchilada in his hand and his shirt said _Pan is Dead – Keep his Kingdom Alive. _Nico had no idea what it was about, but to everyone else, it seemed normal.

"Last year Beckendorf bunked with us, but he graduated last year. He was cool. I think we'll all miss him." Percy said, smiling sadly before taking another bite of pizza.

Suddenly, a loud old school school bell rang loud and clear.

Nico looked up at the table, wondering what it meant.

"Warning bell," Leo said.

"30 minutes till curfew. The hall is closes in five. Come on, hurry up so we don't get in trouble." Frank said.

"But I still have another enchilada!" Grover hurried to stuff his first one into his mouth. One gulp and it was gone, Nico stared in wonder.

"We won't get in trouble," Jason said. "It's the first night back, no one gets in trouble. Maybe Percy, I bet he can do it though."

"You bet."

* * *

><p>When Nico finally got to lie down on his bed to sleep, his alarm set for tomorrow 7:30 sharp, he wasn't so mad at his dad for sending him here afterall.<p> 


	2. First Day Blues

**1. First Day Blues (Part 1)**

"_I'm blue, da ba de da ba die, da ba de_—"

"Percy!" Jason exclaimed in annoyance. When the only response was a groan and some blankets being ruffled, the boy sat up in his lower bunk and slammed a hand on the wooden frame of the bunk above him. "Percy!"

"—_da ba die, da ba de da ba die, I'm blue_—"

"What!?" Percy shouted in return, lifting his head up and looking over at the furious Jason.

"—_I have a blue house with a blue window_—"

"Wake the fuck up and turn off that godamn alarm!" Jason collapsed back onto the mattress when Percy's frustrated huff of annoyance signaled his understanding.

"—_Blue are all the streets and all_—. . ."

Percy followed Jason's example and collapsed back onto his bed. "Happy?"

"No. Do you know what time it is, Mr. Blue?" Jason snarked.

"No?"

"It's 6 AM." Nico finally cut in. "Why the fuck was your alarm for 6 AM, Percy?" He had too woken up with the infernal Eiffel 65 song. He hoped that staying quiet and bunching up in his blankets would make it go away.

"Oh. . ." Percy said apologetically. His voice was husky with sleep. "Oops, my bad. I accidentally hit my swim practice alarm instead of the school alarm. Sorry."

"You're gonna wake us up every time there's practice at 6 AM?" Nico said exasperatedly. He wanted to hit himself with his pillow.

There was a pause of silence before Percy replied. ". . .Um, yeah. But I'm not the only one. Jason's Cross Country team practices in the mornings too."

"Guilty." Jason admitted.

"Ughh. . ." and with that, the three boys fell asleep once again.

When Nico's alarm finally blared, a _normal_ robotic blare, the three boys felt like they hadn't got any sleep.

Nico was still pretending to sleep, his back to the wall. He was in denial. School started today. Grade nine. _Yay!_

Yeah, no.

He watched as Percy picked himself out of the bunk and dropped onto the floor, his limbs too weak to catch the fall without stumbling. He ended up coming unbearably close to Nico's bed. He shook his head a bit as if shaking off the drowsiness. He sent Nico a smile.

"Good morning," Percy said with a smirk. "You, my friend, have some really attractive bed hair. You should really do something about that."

Nico slumped onto his stomach and hid his head in his pillow. He felt the blush creep all over his face. Percy had the cutest bedhead and morning facial expressions. And he made fun of Nico's hair. Oh dear god, he was not going to survive this dorm.

He felt someone tap him on the back. "Come on, Nico, we gotta get up."

Nico sat up and waved a hand toward that person's general direction. Pulling the blanket off of his face, he wished he'd stayed like that a couple more seconds.

Percy was trying to pull on the grey school pants. He almost had it, he just had to shrug it up onto his hips. His blue boxers were showing at the top and Percy was yet to put on a shirt.

If Nico could ever keep the blushing under control, he might even get used to this. As Percy put on the white cotton shirt, he noticed Nico was still in bed. Jason apparently, had vacated his bed and slammed the bathroom door muttering about stupid swimmers and bad music.

Percy's eyes followed Nico's to the poor bathroom door. "Yeah, Jason is an awesome guy and all, but he's not a morning person."

There was the sound of something being thrown at the door before Jason yelled, "I heard that!"

Percy laughed and grabbed his belt and began looping it on. "Hurry up! I have to brush my teeth."

"I'll take my godamn time then." Jason replied through the door. Percy kept laughing.

Nico brought his legs over the side of the bed. He was still feeling too lazy to get up properly. Percy nudged him in the arm. "Nico, it's the first day of school. Get up man!"

Nico tried to send him a glare, but it just ended up being a sad puppy dog look. He stood up. Last night, he'd worn black pajama pants and a black tank to bed. He needed to go to the bathroom, so while he waited for the two older boys to finish brushing their teeth (Jason had let Percy in after some more banter), he opened the folder that had been left discarded on his desk when he came back to the dorm to sleep.

He grabbed his schedule and the map and placed them side by side.

_Nico di Angelo Westover Hall for Boys Grade Nine Schedule Locker #346_

_KEY: N – Northwest Classrooms, S – Southwest Classrooms, First # of room represents the floor, AT – South Tower, GS – School Gym, CP – Plaza Classroom, (+) – Higher Grade Level, (=) – All Grades Class_

**Time ****_Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday_**

**9 - 10 AM** English – 110N Science – 311S English – 110N Science – 311S English – 110N

**10:05 - 11 AM** Math – 217S Math – 217S Math – 217S Math – 217S Science – 311S

**11:05 - 12 PM** History -108S Geo – 106S History – 108S Geo – 106S Astronomy - 103AT

**12:05 - 1 PM** **-Lunch-**

**1:05 - 2 PM** Gym – GS Gym – GS Gym – GS Gym – GS (=)Fencing – 4CP

**2:05 - 3 PM** (+)Latin – 318N Study - Library (+)Latin – 318N Study - Library (+)Latin – 318N

**3:05 - 4 PM** Tech – 202S Art – 204N Tech – 202S Art – 204N Early Dismissal

Nico took in all this information. He looked from the map to the schedule and felt dizzy. He put it back into the folder. A letter from the school to himself caught his eye. He noticed Percy and Jason were finished, and he really did have to pee, but his curiosity won out.

**Dear Mr. di Angelo,**

**Here are some guidelines you need to know for your participation at our school.**

**Breakfast is from 8-9 AM. Anyone who arrives over thirty minutes late will not receive a full meal. Lunch can be eaten in the Dining Hall or the Plaza. Dinner is at 6:30 PM. Attendance is mandatory, unless under supervision of an authority figure. Tardiness at dinner isn't commendable. The Dining Hall stays open until 9 PM. On weeknights, you must be in your dorms at 9:45 PM, unless under the supervision of an authority figure. Lights out is at 10:30 PM. Our Caretaker, Mr. Dionysus, will come around at 11 PM to ensure you are asleep. **

**On weekends, breakfast is open from 9:30-11 AM. Lunch is open from 12-1:30 PM and dinner is from 7-8:30 PM. The Dining Hall closes at 10 PM. You must be in your dorms by 10:45 PM and lights out is at 11:30 PM. **

**Other important information on these guidelines can be found in your rule book, which can be found in this folder. Please read it over. **

**All of this season's sport try outs will take place on Saturday and Sunday this week. I hope you make our school proud if any of these sports interest you. The list can be found in your agenda – also included in this folder. **

**Sincerely,**

**_Jupiter Grace_**

**Headmaster of Westover Hall for Boys**

Nico put the letter back in the folder and reminded himself to finish looking through the folder at breakfast. He looked at his watch. 7:45 AM. He has to hurry.

He goes into the bathroom and remembers to bring his toiletries with him. There's no shower or bath in the room. Just a sink and a toilet. After brushing his teeth and going to the bathroom, he looks into the mirror.

Yeah, Percy wasn't joking about Nico's beautiful bedhead.

Nico got his hands wet and passed them through the curls. It looked much better when he was done. He exits the room and looks to Percy, who is dressed and stuffing things into a poor blue bookbag.

"Better?" he asks jokingly, a grudging smile on his face.

Percy looks up like, '_What?'_ and notices Nico with a smile. Nico's heart fluttered and he fought down a blush. Percy looked too cute in his uniform.

"Much." Percy admitted. "Get dressed, niner. You have ten minutes."

Nico yawned as he made his way to his bag and changed. He changed quickly and discretely, kind've shy to expose his lacking and skinny physique to guys like Percy and Jason, who were – like, ripped. At least, Jason was. Percy was leaner and skater/swimmer like. Either way, both were way ahead of Nico and it wasn't something he was going to broadcast.

As Nico stuffed all the books he'd need until lunch into his bag, he heard Jason and Percy talking about their classes. Nico was curious as to why there was an early dismissal every Friday. He decided to ask.

"Jason," Nico began, "I was just wondering why we-"

Nico cracked up. When he looked up at Jason from his bag, he was wearing glasses. And they didn't look stupid or anything. No, not at all. But it cracked him up. "You. . .you wear. . . you wear glasses?" Nico managed.

Percy realized that's what Nico was laughing about and cracked up as well. "Oh my god. . ."

Jason glared at the two of them. "I don't see what's so funny." But still, a glimmer of a smile passed across his face. "Seriously, both of you. Stop. And here I thought you were decent Nico. Turns out you're worse than Percy." Jason stood up and placed a red bag over his shoulder, heading for the door. "See, this is what I get for trying to be nice to you. Okay, yeah really funny. Bye."

Jason opened the door and was halfway out of it before Percy was on his heels. "No, wait! We're sorry. Right, Nico?" Nico gave a nod, still trying not to laugh. "Come back!"

Jason cracked when Percy tripped on the carpet by the door and banged his head on the doorknob. He turned around and tried to help him up. Eventually Nico came over to help, his bag over his shoulder, since Jason was failing. Both the boys sat with their backs against the door and Percy groaning in pain, clutching his forehead. Nico pushed the two boys up and took their elbows. Right on cue, Percy's stomach growled.

They kept laughing as they proceeded down the stairs, almost tripping a dangerous amount of times.

Breakfast went by pretty quickly. It was just Percy, Jason and him at one table. Soon into the meal, which was banana chocolate crêpe, Nico realized he didn't know what grades Jason and Percy were in.

"Hey, guys, what grades are you in?" Nico asked, his mouth half full of bananas.

Jason answered first. He used the top of his hand to push his glasses up his nose while bringing a forkful to his lips. "Ten."

Percy looked at him like he wanted to say something but his mouth was too full. Eventually he said "Ef'effen."

Nico looked at Jason. The blonde snorted and swallowed. "He means eleven."

He choked a little on his chocolate covered bananas. Nico had a crush on an eleventh grader. That's two years. That's his sister's age.

Percy noticed that Nico was having trouble swallowing and pushed him his glass of water. Nico let out a gasping "Thanks," before drinking nearly half the cup.

"What classes are you taking this year?" Nico asked them.

"I dunno." Percy said. "All I remember is that I have Math first period, aquatics last period, and fencing after lunch on Fridays."

Jason sent a disapproving look towards Percy. "All the academic classes. All three sciences and two electives. I have to check my schedule and tell you then. Where's your first class?"

Nico thought back. "It's northwest I think room 110 or something. English."

"Oh, that's always fun." Jason might have said it with a smile, but Nico could tell neither of the boys particularly liked the class.

It turned out, neither did Nico.

First period was horrible. Mr. Apollo was an aspiring poet. Our first unit would be on poems.

"Haikus, limericks, diamonds! Oh, all the good stuff. You guys will have so much fun." He said. Mr. Apollo recited some of his own poems to the class, Nico was really wondering how the guy became an English teacher.

He was one of those young straight out of college teachers and Nico wasn't really into older guys but Mr. Apollo was attractive. Auburn hair, light blue jeans, yellow pullover over a white dress shirt, and blue eyes. Really nice eyelashes.

Yeah, English class was horrible, but at least it wasn't hideous to the eye.

On a happier note, the two boys Nico had sat next to were funny. Connor and Travis made fun of Apollo by drawing him reciting poems and then messing him up. By the end of class, Nico had been holding a drawing of a blonde stick figure with two moustaches, a small dick, and boobs saying "_I am Apollo, I am awesome at poems, I have a small dick._" Nico was nearly bursting with laughter at their immaturity by the end of class. The two boys were cousins who everyone mistook for twins. They looked nearly identical, but Travis was taller.

When the bell rang a long hour later, Nico had trouble getting to his next class on time. Math was all the way on the southwest side of the school and on the third floor. Neither Travis nor Connor had it with him, since they were taking applied math. Nico hadn't realized how big the school was until he had to walk across nearly half of it.

On the way there, he bumped into a boy who also had the same class. They climbed the stairs together and introduced themselves. Being this social was weird for Nico. Something about Jason and Percy had rubbed off on him.

The blonde boy he met on the stairs was named Malcolm and he had curly hair and smart grey eyes. Nico decided he'd sit next to him, so maybe his intelligence would rub off onto Nico. When they entered the math classroom just as the bell rang, the class was loud and social. Nico and Malcolm found two seats near the right side middle of the room.

The Professor entered from a back office with a huge paper filled folder in his arms. He smiled hugely at the class. He placed the papers down at the desk and stood, speaking in a loud voice.

"Quiet! Quiet!" The class calmed down. "My name is Professor Archimedes, and today we'll be taking a small exam-" the class groaned "—to see how much all of you remember from your old schools. When you're done, you're welcome to read anything you'd like. I will also hand out the class curriculum. . ."

Nico zoned out. Was it possible for math class to feel longer than English?

He looked over at the exam the professor had just handed out. Nico looked over all the numbers. Yeah, no. Malcolm wasn't going to be able to save him, he was on his own.

_Failing this exam doesn't count for anything . . . it's just a review, right?_

When the bell finally rang, Nico handed in his uncompleted work and said goodbye to Malcolm. He had History on the first floor. Climbing the stairs each time seemed harder and harder. At least he was going towards the first floor.

History. Nico knew some history. Well, at least more than the average person. Mythomagic was a huge source of historical myths and events. Nico could name almost any god you could think of. His favorite gods were the Greeks. Poseidon, Zeus and Hades.

The classroom, when he finally found it a couple seconds before the bell was due to ring, was half museum half classroom. Behind the desk were many old books, a bronze sword in a glass case, a shield with engravings on it and a small marble sculpture replica of something Nico had seen before.

Nico was pretty interested in it as he moved towards a window seat. Outside, some clouds had started to form over the cliff. You could see the water on the far horizon lapping over itself into the bluffs. Not paying attention, Nico accidentally walked into another boy. He had sunny blonde curls and rich blue eyes, not stormy and electric like Jason's. Nico lost his ability to speak at the boys rosy lips and cheeks.

"Sorry," the boy smiled at him before running a hand through his curls. He stuck out his hand. "Will. You?"

It took him all of 3 seconds to realize he had to shake the boy's hand. "It was my fault. Nico."

The boy smiled some more. Nico tried to return that smile without looking stupid. Thankfully, he was saved by the bell. The boy gestured to the seat next to him. "Come on."

So Nico sat next to the boy and by the window. He wondered on which side he would be stuck daydreaming more often. Sunny boy Will (his tan was deliciously perfect and his teeth hurt to look at) or Cliffside weather report.

It turned out that he didn't daydream too often in this class. It was interesting.

The professor – on the board _Professor Brunner_ had been written and underlined – rolled into the room. The man had a brown beard and brown hair and eyes. He wore a brown suit and a blue blanket over his legs. He wheeled his way to behind the desk and smiled at the class before introducing himself.

"Good morning," he said.

"Good morning." The class answered in return neatly.

"As you can see, my name is Professor Brunner. This year, I am planning to teach you all about ancient civilizations. In geography, which you will all be together for, Professor Hermes will follow what we learn in History. Astronomy, which you have with Professor Hestia, will follow through in what you're learning in both science and history. Who can name one of the most successful ancient civilizations? You get a chocolate if you get it right." The professor waved a piece of milk chocolate candy as motivation.

Nico knew the answer. However, another boy beat him to the punch and raised his hand. The professor called on him and asked his name.

"Erm, Dakota. The Roman Kingdom, right?" the boy said uncertainly.

"Empire, Dakota, the Roman Empire. It's a good guess. However successful they were, and they were very great, it was not the answer I was looking for. Anyone else?" he asked.

Nico nudged will and mumbled under his breath. "The Greeks."

Will nodded and raised his hand. When called on, Sunny boy replied with Nico's answer.

"Correct, William! Here, come get the chocolate." Professor Brunner congratulated.

Will got up and made his way there. Nico observed how his blonde ringlets bounced to his step. "Thanks." He said as he took the candy.

On the walk back, Will sent Nico a sheepish smile and raised his eyebrow at him. As he sat, he spoke quietly to Nico. "How'd you know? Here." Will split the chocolate and gave him half.

Nico shrugged. "My dad took me to a lot of museums," he lied. He knew because he played card games for ten year olds. And the last time he'd gone to a museum, he'd had a sister and a mother.

Eating the chocolate quietly, he zoomed back into what the professor was saying.

Lunch was a short lived break from school. Nico climbed all the way to East Tower for his books and left the before lunch stuff in his locker, which took him nearly half of lunch to find. Will had asked him if he wanted company but Nico had rubbed him off. He wasn't going to drag him up thousands of stairs.

When he got up there, Jason was rummaging through his trunk. "Hey," he said. "It looks like Percy took both mine and his pen, so I just had to get that. Plus, the guys want to play football in the plaza. You?"

Nico nodded his head to what Jason said. "Books," he answered.

"Cool." Jason nodded before gesturing out the door with a pen and a football in hand. "Well, I'll catch you later."

"Yeah." Before he knew it, Nico was alone. He grabbed his books and headed back downstairs to eat lunch in the hall. He sat with Malcolm, whom was reading a book, in the plaza on a bench. The plaza was huge. The grass glimmered with the wind the clouds Nico had seen earlier brought over. There were stone benches and archways into a roofed outdoor hallway. It was cool and looked like it came out of a movie.

"How did you do for the test?" Malcolm asked, referring to math class.

"It was alright." Nico shrugged. "You?"

Malcolm closed his book and took something out of his bag. "I thought it was pretty easy. What classes do you have?"

Malcolm chewed on a cheesesteak as he passed the paper he'd taken out to Nico. His schedule.

Nico tried to remember his classes. "Oh, we have math which you know, gym, tech, and art."

"Nice. I'm only taking art because I need to improve my diagrams and. . ."

Malcolm was a good choice for a friend. He had no problem in talking when Nico wasn't. He was either talking or reading. This gave Nico time to relax and eat his sandwich. When the bell rang, they walked to gym together. It was all the way on the other side of the plaza. After changing and setting their bags down (Nico was really appreciating the new bag Persephone got him. It could hold like, anything), he went out into the gym.

Will was in this class. So was that kid Dakota. Will came over to Nico and smiled at him. Nico realized he'd overlooked how tall Will was. Malcolm was about Nico's height, but Will had a head on them both. He was probably really athletic (he looked like a basketball player and his uniform showed off more tanned skin then Nico needed to see), so after offering a greeting, Nico distanced himself and stayed near Malcolm. The other boy looked less athletic.

As Nico stated before, he wasn't the most sportive, so he was glad when Coach Hedge told them they'd just be running and playing games today. At the end of class, Nico's shins hurt, a ball had hit him in the shoulder, and he was tired, but he admitted it had been fun to Malcolm, who was smiling with adrenaline. Will waved goodbye to him before exiting the change room. Nico returned the gesture.

Latin was next, and with five minutes till the bell, he finished changing and told Malcolm he was leaving. "You're gonna teach me some words later, k?"

"Yeah, sure!" Nico replied.

According to Nico's schedule, he was taking grade ten Latin. This made sense. His dad probably signed him up for the advanced class because if you know at least two Latin descended languages, the language comes easy. Italian and English made it easy.

When he found the room on the northwest side, he had to wait a couple minutes for the bell to ring. When it finally did, many older guys who looked like grade twelves exited. The group of guys he'd seen on the first day of school were among them. They stopped directly in front of Nico on the other side of the hallway to talk.

"Hate that fucking language. Why don't they teach us something more useful? Like Chinese or something." The attractive blonde – Castellan or something – said irritatingly. Nico stared at his open rudeness.

The guys friends nodded and said something else Nico couldn't hear. "Yeah, Luke!" the brunette from the other day. The one who cheated on his girlfriend or something. Luke smiled at this and caught Nico's eye by chance. His smile turned into a scowl. Instead of looking away like a normal person, Nico returned the glare. Luke took a step away from his friends and toward him. His friends noticed and looked for the disturbance.

"What are you staring at?" Luke said rudely. His friends laughed when Nico said nothing in return. Luke moved as to take another step, but someone interrupted him.

"Leave him alone, Luke." Percy, who'd just been walking down the hallway but Nico hadn't noticed, said aggressively.

Luke gave Nico one more mean glance before raising an eyebrow at Percy and smirking. "Yeah, and who's gonna make me, Jackson?"

Percy's glare was so fierce Nico nearly shivered. Before the other boy said anything, Luke spoke.

"Stop trying to be the damn hero, Jackson, you're nothing but a poor kid who can't even read."

Percy looked about ready to throw a punch before Jason showed up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Castellan." He said coldly to Luke.

"Grace." Luke mocked him, but with more respect in his voice. Nico wondered where the sudden change of attitude came from. The dark blonde turned around and nodded to his friends before leaving.

Nico looked from the walking figure and back at Percy and Jason. Jason was saying something to Percy quietly. They were arguing. A couple of onlookers were finally either dispersing into the Latin classroom or the rest of the hall.

"—don't let him get on your nerves. You know how he is. He screwed over my sister, you know I hate him just as much as you do. You heard Grover. Luke is literally going to go for every chance he has to get to you."

So, Nico thought back, Thalia was his sister?

But Percy didn't seem to relax at what Jason said, only grow more infuriated. "I know, okay? I don't need you to look out for me all the time. I can handle it."

Jason replied with just as much irritation. "You're already on probation for your stunt last year. I don't care if you can handle it. There's no way my dad is going to let you stay at this school if you punch someone."

Percy sent a toned down version of his earlier glare in Jason's direction and huffed in indignation. "I wasn't going to punch him."

Jason got a hint of a smile on his face and let out a similar huff as Percy's. "No, you were just gonna fist bump him in the face." Percy cracked a grin and dropped his head, putting a hand on Jason's shoulder. "Come on," Jason continued, "let's go to class before the bell rings. Leave it to you to actually cause trouble on the first day."

Nico twisted his head in confusion as the two headed to his classroom door. As Percy passed, Nico spoke up.

"Percy," he started but the boy smiled at him and interrupted.

"It's okay. It wasn't your fault. Me and Luke have history." Then he was gone through the door of Nico's Latin class. He went back to look at Jason.

"You okay, Nico?" Jason asked. He looked a lot more tired after the argument.

"Yeah." Nico said, defeated. He checked the number on the door. Yep, 318N.

He followed Jason into the room. It was thin and kind've long. The bell rang. Frank, the chubby Chinese muscle boy from yesterday gestured for Jason to sit in the seat next to him. Percy had sat himself directly in front of Frank. Nico decided to snag the free seat next to him. Bad idea, yes. But that wasn't the point. He sat just as the teacher came in. It was Professor Brunner.

Percy was gazing at the window next to him. This classroom was right on the cliff Nico noticed. Water crashed into the bluffs and sparkled. He looked at the raven haired teenager next to him. The way Percy and Jason had fought brought out mixed emotions in Nico.

On one hand he was really confused and furious at what had just happened, and on the other he was really distracted and pleased by Percy's reaction. Percy somehow went from attractive and cute when he was happy to gorgeously fierce and sexy when he was mad. He was wearing a different uniform than Nico was. He wore a long sleeve dress shirt and the grey Westover vest uniform Nico had upstairs. The vest was open and his dress shirt was untucked. His grey pants had suited his ass really nicely when he was standing and the collar of the shirt was unbuttoned. His sleeves were rolled up messily and his hair looked like he hadn't touched it since this morning.

Green eyes found his and looked on in confusion. Since Professor Brunner was talking, Percy ripped a page from his notebook and wrote out a message slowly.

_Why are yuo in Ihis class?_

Nico took in the spelling mistakes. Maybe Percy was dyslexic. He wrote back.

_I'm Italian. Why are you in this class? You're gr 11, aren't you?_

It took Percy a couple minutes to disfigure Nico's cursive scrawl. He replied via note.

_Faild last year._

_Oh. Why is Jason in this class?_

Percy read the note under his breath and wrote the next note in huge letters, big enough that the person behind him could see.

_Hes a nerd._

A note hit Percy in the ear. He picked it up sneakily and opened it.

_I'm not a nerd. I like Latin. Plus my dad made me take it. Why's Nico in this class? _

Percy turned around and whispered "He's Italian," in a goofy '_he's so fancy'_ voice. Nico elbowed him and turned to nod at Jason.

A couple minutes later, as Professor Brunner asked the class a couple of questions, making sure Percy didn't notice, Nico wrote Jason a note.

_What history does Percy have with Luke?_

Jason read the note and Nico watched through the corner of his eye. Percy was called on next to him.

"Um, I don't know, sir." he said. Professor Brunner said something else, but Jason poked Nico's shoulder and leaned forward to whisper in his ear. Nico leaned back. "I'll tell you later." He said audibly.

He leaned away and nodded noticeably. That was okay. Nico understood.

Eventually, the professor told them to see how many Latin words you could come up with in a group of four, and Nico and Percy turned towards Jason and Frank.

After finding about 15 words – seven of them Jason's, 5 Frank's, 2 Nico's and 1 Percy's – Frank and Nico got to know each other a bit better. Something about being with Jason and Percy made Nico comfortably social. It turns out Frank is Canadian, and his mom died in the army. Nico expressed his regrets by telling him his mother had died in an accident at a hotel in Las Vegas. Frank asked if he liked Mythomagic. Nico nodded, trying not to be too excited that he wasn't the only geek in the school.

"Do you know anyone at Yancy?" Frank asked him. Jason and Nico had traded seats after a while.

"Oh, yeah. My half-sister just started there. Her names Hazel." Nico replied.

"No way! I know Hazel. We took the same bus here." Frank blushed. "She's really nice."

"Nicest person I know." Nico said honestly.

Too soon, the bell rang and he was taken away from his new friend. Nico waved goodbye to the older boys and made his way down the stairs again. He had tech with Malcolm. Last period of the day.

_Thank the gods._

Tech was with Professor Daedalus, an old chap that Nico thought was too smart for his own good. He was a bit grouchy, but overall, he was okay. Malcolm and he had spent most of the period on the computer's paint application.

When the last bell finally rang, Nico was ready to collapse on his bed upstairs until dinner. Thank god, he had no homework. A shower sounded good. After all, Percy had said the baths area was huge.

He might not be able to live with climbing tons of stairs every day, but he was down with living with that.


End file.
